


The One Where Anakin and Padmé Are Pen Pals

by Fialleril



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fix-It, Pen Pals, Revolutionaries In Love, Slavery, Tatooine Slave Culture, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 16:10:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7445473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/pseuds/Fialleril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Padmé and Anakin keep in touch after TPM, and this changes literally everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Anakin and Padmé Are Pen Pals

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually one of those tumblr bullet point fics, but several people requested that I post it here. I may eventually write some one shots or expanded scenes in this 'verse, but for now, here's the outline.
> 
> I started outlining this thinking I would just change a few things about AOTC, to make it make more sense. Only then I started really thinking about just how much would change if Anakin and Padmé actually kept in touch for ten years, and... Well, what I ended up with was a complete AU. With a slave revolution, of course.
> 
> (No one is surprised.)

  * So Padmé gives Anakin her com frequency before he leaves Naboo at the end of TPM, because she cares about this kid and she wants to make sure he’s all right, and she doesn’t know that the Jedi non-attachment rule is going to mean he’s not supposed to keep in touch with her at all.
  * When she doesn’t hear from him at first she figures he’s probably really busy, settling in and starting his Jedi training and all that, so she gives him time.
  * But when she still doesn’t hear from him eventually she gets worried and shoots him a quick message, basically just “Hey how are you?”
  * It takes him a while to reply and when he does it’s not anything Padmé was expecting. “The Council says I’m not supposed to talk to you because you’re an attachment, like my mom, and I have to let you go if I’m going to be a Jedi. But I _want_ to keep talking to you. You’re my friend.”
  * So now Padmé’s all righteously angry so she says, “Well to hell with that. You’re my friend too. So how are you with encryptions?”
  * And Anakin sends back some super goofy winking space emoji and he’s like, “I grew up in the Quarters we have a secret language and also me and Kitster had a code I’ve got this.”
  * So after that they communicate pretty regularly and it doesn’t take long before Anakin casually mentions how much he misses his mom and how he hopes she’s okay and he doesn’t _think_ Watto will hurt her because he usually didn’t, but sometimes…
  * And Padmé is just stunned and horrified because she thought surely the Jedi were going to send someone back to Tatooine to free Shmi but apparently no one did? And Anakin’s not even allowed to talk to her?
  * And Anakin doesn’t see what’s so surprising or unusual about this, which just makes Padmé even more angry.
  * But she doesn’t tell him that. She just goes on keeping up correspondence with him, and meanwhile she sends some of her own agents back to Tatooine to see about freeing Shmi.
  * Shmi, of course, refuses to leave Tatooine even after she’s free: her hovel is a stop on the freedom trail and as she told Anakin, her place is there, with her people. But she does get a long distance com, and Padmé surprises Anakin with the news that his mom is free and he can contact her.
  * Part of Anakin really wants to go home now that he knows his mom is free (and involved with the revolution), but he also really wants to become a Jedi and he’s grown to like Master Obi-Wan and anyway Mom says she still wants him to be a Jedi so he decides he’ll stick it out, at least until he’s knighted, and then he’ll go back like he promised and free all the slaves.
  * And in the meantime he secretly stays in touch with both Padmé and Shmi.
  * Padmé causes a bit of a galactic scandal by opening Naboo’s borders and offering sanctuary to anyone from the Outer Rim Territories who’s escaping slavery. Naboo becomes one of the major end ports of the freedom trail. There’s a steadily growing Tatooine diaspora population in Theed.
  * Anakin discovers that he can use his post as a Jedi to help people who are running on the trail, and that gives him one more reason to want to stay with the Order.
  * (Obi-Wan, meanwhile, suspects that Anakin is involved with something like this, and although he doesn’t outright approve, he doesn’t say anything, either.)
  * Padmé’s term as Queen ends and Queen Jamillia asks her to become Senator. It’s a controversial choice because Padmé’s decision to offer Naboo as a safe refuge for escaping slaves has upset quite a lot of people in the Core worlds – both people who liked the status quo the way it was, and people who were much happier being able to pretend none of that stuff was happening on the Outer Rim.
  * Obi-Wan increasingly finds himself in meetings with the Jedi Council that go something like this: “Where is your padawan, Master Kenobi?” “Er, he’s…sick.” (Yes. Sick. Definitely not too busy working on forging documents for that Twi’lek family Obi-Wan knows nothing about. Anakin said he was sick. Of course Obi-Wan believes him. Really.) “Hmm,” says Master Yoda. “Very sickly your padawan has been of late, yes? Take better care of him you should!” “Yes, Master.”
  * (A couple of days later a family of Twi’leks, their papers very properly in order, emigrates to Naboo. This is nothing unusual.)
  * When someone tries to kill Padmé, the Jedi Council takes it pretty seriously, because she has a lot of enemies in a lot of crime syndicates. They still don’t suspect Dooku, though.
  * Obi-Wan and Anakin get assigned as Padmé’s protectors. Anakin thinks he can hazard a guess as to who’s behind the attempts on her life, and Obi-Wan is inclined to believe him, because he knows Padmé has made a lot of enemies with her anti-slavery work and he also knows (although he still won’t admit to knowing) that his padawan is more directly involved in related work than he really should be.
  * Anakin and Padmé are both incredibly nervous about meeting again, because they’ve been chatting constantly and even collaborating behind the scenes for ten years, but they haven’t actually _seen_ each other, and they’re also both very aware of the fact that Obi-Wan doesn’t know they’ve kept in touch and Anakin can’t afford to let him find out.
  * So when they do finally meet they’re both busy with inner monologues reminding themselves to act natural (which is, of course, a terrible recipe for actually acting natural), and then on top of that they see each other and it’s basically, “Oh no he’s hot.” “Oh no she’s hotter.” “What do I _do_?” The resulting conversation is incredibly awkward for everyone, but probably Obi-Wan most of all.
  * Anakin is annoyed that they have to play bodyguard instead of going after Nute Gunray, who is obviously the one behind this. “I agree, padawan,” says Obi-Wan, “but we do have to have actual proof.”
  * Padmé and Anakin hatch a plan to get that proof.
  * Botched assassination attempts happen, Obi-Wan jumps out a window (as one does), a mysterious poisoned dart comes into play, etc., and our Jedi team splits up – Obi-Wan to Kamino, Anakin and Padmé to Naboo.
  * So now Anakin and Padmé are alone and it’s great because they get to actually catch up in person for the first time in ten years but it’s also kind of awkward because oh no he’s / she’s hot, and they’re honestly more worried about ruining the friendship than they are about the Jedi Code (which they’ve both been ignoring for ten years anyway).
  * Meanwhile Obi-Wan goes to Kamino and discovers an entire army of clones apparently ordered by the Jedi Council and look, he’s spent a lot of time in the last decade trying hard not to know what Anakin is up to, and, okay, in the last couple of years maybe he’s had a slight preference for getting them missions that run along major shipping routes which might just happen to also be common routes on the freedom trail, and maybe once or twice he’s overheard some things, or seen some of the people Anakin just happens to run into, but… Yeah, okay, he has to admit it, there’s something really _off_ about this clone army. Something that sits entirely wrong in his gut. Something that makes him think, if Anakin were here with him, Obi-Wan would already be busy looking the other way, carefully not knowing what his padawan is up to.
  * In fact at that moment what his padawan is up to is having really horrific nightmares about his mother. They keep getting worse every night and Padmé is really worried and they’ve both tried calling Shmi several times but haven’t heard back. And then finally Anakin gets a message from Kitster that says, in their old code, “Mom’s been captured by the Hutts. Come home.”
  * Padmé’s already packing her things before Anakin can even ask.
  * Back on Kamino Obi-Wan reports what he’s discovered about the clones to the Council, and then tries to learn more about this Jango Fett and the army supposedly ordered by the Jedi. “Some of our best product in years,” Taun We had said. (And Obi-Wan isn’t thinking about something he definitely never overheard Anakin say once, to a Twi’lek girl who was only supposed to be their informant, who they definitely didn’t have authorization to smuggle away from her ~~owner~~ employer, and who Obi-Wan is definitely sure Anakin didn’t go back for later that night when Obi-Wan was most definitely asleep. Definitely. He very much didn’t overhear Anakin say, “You’re not a product.”)
  * Anakin and Padmé make it to Tatooine just in time to find Kitster, Melee, and their friends planning an infiltration of Jabba’s palace to rescue Shmi. “They took her in the middle of the night,” says Kitster. “Burned the old hovel to the ground. But she got everybody else out. Every single one.” He smiles grimly. “It’s going to be a public execution, because he knows people won’t believe it happened otherwise. She’s a Skywalker. They’ll say she became a bird and flew away.”
  * “It’s not _going_ to happen,” says Anakin, and they all nod. It’s not.
  * Jedi stealth, it turns out, is really useful for infiltration. Padmé’s impressive collection of blasters is pretty useful, too. (“Damn,” says Melee. “If you’re a pacifist I’d hate to meet a Naboo warrior.”) But it’s Kitster and Melee’s acting skills that get them into Jabba’s throne room. And it’s Shmi Skywalker who kills the Hutt with her own chains.
  * (Anakin slaughters a huge number of Jabba’s forces, and Padmé doesn’t quite know what to think. On the one hand it’s…a lot of killing. But on the other hand they’re slavers, and Anakin’s fighting a revolution. And she understands why he’s angry. He has every right to be.)
  * Meanwhile on an entirely different desert world, Obi-Wan Kenobi is largely unsurprised to find Nute Gunray in deep with the Separatist plot. He always knew Anakin was right about Gunray wanting Padmé dead. She’s done more than entire rival corporations to ruin his bottom line: first with the spectacular failure of the Naboo blockade, and then with her crusade against Outer Rim slavery. (Profit margins go down considerably when you lose a major source of free labor.)
  * Obi-Wan _is_ a bit surprised to find Dooku with the Separatists, though. Surprised and disappointed. Qui-Gon always spoke so highly of his former master.
  * He’s surprised enough, in fact, that he doesn’t notice he’s been spotted until it’s too late…
  * Anakin and Padmé return from the victory at Jabba’s palace to find a message waiting from Obi-Wan. The Council says they’re supposed to stay where they are. But of course they don’t listen.
  * A rescue attempt is made, and it goes about as well as you might expect. Padmé and Anakin are scheduled for execution too. Padmé decides that if they’re going to die anyway, there’s no point in worrying about whether or not a romantic relationship would ruin their friendship, so she should just tell him. Kissing happens. They don’t actually die. Neither does Obi-Wan.
  * Then Master Yoda shows up with an army of clones.
  * At first that doesn’t really register. Things are pretty hectic, and they’re all trying to survive, and then Dooku’s escaping and everything kind of blurs together, so it’s not until they’re all on a transport back to Coruscant, and Anakin is already planning a couple dozen mods for his new mechanical arm, that Padmé asks where the army came from.
  * Obi-Wan tells her. But the whole time, he’s watching Anakin’s face. He’s spent the last several days hearing Anakin in the back of his mind. “Some of our best product.” “You’re not a product.”
  * Padmé looks openly troubled by Obi-Wan’s news, but Anakin’s face stays perfectly blank. It’s the same blank Obi-Wan sees every time they have a mission on one of the transport routes. This time, he thinks, it’s not going to be enough to pretend he doesn’t see it.
  * “Did the Jedi Council really order this army, Obi-Wan?” Padmé asks. And Obi-Wan thinks about lying, thinks about keeping the secret like the Council has decided to do. And then he looks at Anakin and thinks about all the secrets his padawan keeps, all the secrets Obi-Wan keeps himself by carefully not knowing, and he thinks, well, what’s one more? So he says, “No. They didn’t.”
  * When Padmé says, “I’m going to find out who did,” Obi-Wan isn’t surprised. He isn’t surprised, either, when Anakin says a few days later that he’s escorting Senator Amidala back to Naboo. The Council has said that they’re not to let anyone know the truth about the clone army, that it would destroy what credibility the Jedi have with the Senate and they can’t afford to let the Senate know how diminished their ability to read the Force has become. Obi-Wan knows Anakin isn’t going to abide by that instruction. He decides he doesn’t know it, though.
  * What _would_ surprise Obi-Wan is the fact that his padawan is going back to Naboo by way of Tatooine, and that the stop on Tatooine is partly to check in with Shmi in the ongoing aftermath of Tatooine’s revolution, and partly so Anakin and Padmé can get married.
  * But if Obi-Wan did learn that, once he got over the shock, he wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Padmé and Anakin spend their short honeymoon tracking down and following the money trail, a money trail that leads from Kamino through a series of puppet organizations until it finally dead ends in an account on Coruscant. An account registered under the name Sifo-Dyas.
  * Tatooine begins the hard process of rebuilding in the wake of the Hutts’ defeat, but this goes largely unnoticed in the Core. News from Tatooine generally does. And now there are more important things for the Senate and the Jedi to concern themselves with. (There are always more important things.)
  * The Republic and the Separatists go to war. The Jedi transition to a purely military role. Obi-Wan and Anakin are usually assigned together, and Obi-Wan pretends not to notice the way Anakin talks to his troops, pretends that he never overhears his now former padawan saying, “You are not a product,” pretends, when the Council asks, that he has no idea why Anakin’s unit has the highest AWOL numbers in the entire Grand Army. Pretends that he isn’t aware his own unit has the second highest numbers. Pretends that he has no idea Anakin is in contact with Padmé more often than ever, that he doesn’t know his former padawan almost never sleeps not because he has nightmares, but because he doesn’t have the time. He’s following the trail.
  * Obi-Wan pretends he isn’t following the trail himself.
  * “Got you!” says Anakin one night, sitting up against the wall of a rocky overhang and with rain still dripping off his hair, but not seeming to notice either the damp or the fact that Obi-Wan isn’t actually asleep. Obi-Wan throws in a snore, because he is very good at pretending.
  * “That’s the worst fake snore I’ve ever heard,” Anakin says without looking up from the datapad Obi-Wan definitely doesn’t know he uses to communicate with Padmé. “Also, you might want to look at this, Obi-Wan. There’s a Sith Lord in the Senate.”
  * It’s actually Padmé who finally tracked down the provenance of the account. She thinks she knows who the Sith Lord is, too. By the way that Anakin’s gone deadly still and quiet, Obi-Wan guesses that she’s right.
  * “There’ll be a transmitter somewhere,” Anakin says. “There always is, in slaves.”
  * He’s right. It’s a control chip, planted in each clone’s brain. Numbered orders. Anakin smiles grimly. “There’s always a transmitter,” he says.
  * He built the scanner years ago. It works just as well on the clones as it does on the slaves of the Outer Rim.
  * When the Jedi Council moves to arrest Palpatine, the Chancellor executes Order 66. And then, just a few moments later, he executes Order 73. Stand down and await orders. Only three Jedi are killed.
  * “I spliced together a recording of your voice,” Anakin tells Palpatine. “ _Master_.” That word he spits like a curse. It’s a word Palpatine had been quite looking forward to hearing from Anakin, but at this time, in this tone, he finds he doesn’t like it at all.
  * Padmé has all the evidence they need to convict Palpatine, but he’ll never go to trial, because he tries to fight his way out instead.
  * It’s not Anakin, or any other Jedi, who kills the would-be Emperor, though. It’s Captain Rex of the 501st.
  * The Council offers Anakin both Mastery and a seat on the Council. He tells them he’s leaving the Jedi Order. Obi-Wan pretends to be surprised.
  * A few weeks later, when Padmé and Anakin officially announce their marriage, he actually is.



**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [and rise, rise in the desert sand](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8040034) by [hollytrees](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollytrees/pseuds/hollytrees)




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